The entire neighborhood was permeated with an atmosphere of decay and desolation, feeling like a forgotten dead city.
I walked around and found apartment 201, unit 4, building 3, and knocked on the door.
Several minutes later, the door creaked open slowly.
The person who opened the door was an eleven or twelve-year-old child.
He tilted his head and looked at me, his eyes were wide-set and slightly upturned, his gaze revealing simplicity and naivety.
Why is it a child?
I was just about to check the house number when the boy suddenly brought his legs together, snapped to attention, gave me a military salute, and loudly proclaimed, "Please inspect me, sir!"
This whole sequence of actions completely baffled me.
Just then, an old, hoarse voice came from inside the house: "Xiao Shun, who is it?"
The child did not respond, but continued to stare intently at me.
A short while later, an elderly man with gray hair and a hunched back walked out of the room, trembling.
He looked me up and down, and asked in a hoarse voice, "Who are you looking for?"
I smiled and asked, "Is this Niu Hongsheng's home?"
Upon hearing this, the old man's face instantly darkened. He forcefully pulled the child and slammed the door shut.
I touched my nose and knocked on the door again.
"Uncle Niu, I am Niu Hongsheng's colleague. The company knows that Hongsheng has passed away, so they asked me to come and offer my condolences."
"Get out, get out! You've got the wrong person. There's no one named Niu Hongsheng here!" The old man's impatient voice came from inside the house.
Did they really find the wrong person?
I called Huang Tao to ask if he had given me the wrong address, but Huang Tao insisted that it couldn't be wrong.
I asked him, "Does Niu Hongsheng have a mentally disabled child in his family?"
"The child you just mentioned is Niu Hongsheng's son, Xiaoshun, who has Down syndrome."
No wonder that child looked so strange, and seemed a bit mentally unstable.
I hung up the phone, feeling a bit of a headache.
Uncle Niu made it clear that he didn't want to talk about Niu Hongsheng, and even felt extreme disgust towards his colleagues.
In this situation, getting any information is as difficult as climbing to the sky.
But I also know that I still need to ask the questions that need to be asked.
I took a deep breath and knocked on the door again: "Uncle Niu, open the door, I just want to ask you something..."
Before I could finish speaking, the door suddenly swung open, and a gleaming kitchen knife came crashing down towards my head.
I reflexively took two steps back, and the cleaver struck the door frame, sending wood chips flying.
Uncle Niu angrily pointed a kitchen knife at me, the tip of which was almost poking my nose.
"I told you there's no one with the surname Niu here! If you dare to knock again, I'll really kill you!"
I quickly raised my hands to signal him not to get agitated: "Uncle Niu, I..."
"Fuck your mother!"
Uncle Niu wouldn't listen to my explanation at all. Like a madman, he swung the cleaver at me again.
I dared not provoke him any further, so I turned around and ran downstairs.
Behind them, the sound of Uncle Niu chopping at the iron handrail with a kitchen knife could still be heard.
"Try it again, and I'll call the police right now and have them arrest you!"
Just as I was thinking about how to get closer to Uncle Niu, Su Mingyang called.
"Old Chen, where are you? I've arrived in the county town."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
